Getting the scoop on sugar and fat content for ice cream made by local companies

CLEVELAND, Ohio — More and more of us prefer to eat food that's produced regionally. And that includes ice cream: Think Cleveland-based Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream, or Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, with headquarters in Columbus.

Both companies boast of using milk and cream from Ohio grass-fed cows, which is better from a health standpoint. That's because you get good-for-you Omega 3 fatty acids from grass-fed cows, but not from mega-farm, corn-fed cows.

But favoring locally produced food has a bit of a downside, too. Usually, such foods don't carry the nutrition labels that mass-produced foods do.

That's because the Food & Drug Administration exempts small businesses from that requirement. And the FDA has a pretty liberal view of "small." As Roger Tedrick, chief of the Ohio Department of Agriculture's dairy division, explains, an ice cream maker has to produce more than 10,000 units of one product before it is required to add a nutritional label that provides a breakdown on fat and sugar content, as well as carbs, sodium and so on.

And "unit" means one size of one flavor. So if, for example, a company sells 9,000 pints of strawberry ice cream, and 9,000 quarts of strawberry ice cream, they aren't required by law to provide nutritional information on the product label.

Even if a company sells between 10,000 and 100,000 units of strawberry ice cream, they could still get a small business exemption from the FDA, and most companies do.

All of this explains why local favorites such as Mitchell's and Jeni's haven't had nutritional labels on their packaged products. Jeni's does provide nutritional content online for one of its flavors, Ugandan Vanilla Bean, and says it's similar to that of other flavors, but Mitchell's hasn't even done that.

Why does it matter, you might ask? Well, for one thing, ice creams vary tremendously in the amount of fat and sugar they contain -- which matters to anyone who pays attention to such things, as we all really should.

Ice cream companies such as Pierre's (also made in Cleveland, but with a huge national distribution), Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs all sport labels listing the amount of fat and sugar per half-cup serving.

The fat grams in these premium ice creams can range from 7 to 20 grams of fat. The sugar-sweetened brands might contain from between 12 to 24 grams of sugar per half-cup serving (those sweetened with aspartame have fewer).

Those are significant differences.

Studies, especially those with large sample sizes of several thousand people, have shown that knowing the calorie content of a food product leads to making lower-calorie choices and to a total calorie reduction in diet, says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

Wootan wrote the law on labeling. She put together the legislation that will finally go into effect next year -- after many bureaucratic delays amid restaurant industry pushback -- that requires restaurants with more than 20 locations to provide nutrition labeling on their menus.

"I know that some people might say it shouldn't matter about labeling, because it's ice cream," she says. "But I think because it's ice cream, knowing the calories matters even more. Even among brands that both taste good -- say Breyer's and Haagen Dazs -- there's a tremendous difference in fat and sugar content."

Americans tend to think in terms of all or nothing, she adds, and that's part of the reason that the majority of us are overweight or obese. "We think, 'Well, it's already bad for me, so I should just go for it,' " she says. "But making choices about 'unhealthy' foods is really important.

"You might decide to get a scoop of really good ice cream instead of eating a pint of a cheaper brand, or instead of ordering a banana split. A scoop of ice cream can fit into your diet."

But you can't make decisions if you don't have the information to make comparisons.

Well, here's some good news: Customers who buy Jeni's packaged ice cream will soon start seeing nutrition labels on the containers, says company CEO John Lowe.

"We've been exempt because we are a small business with less than 100 employees," says Lowe.

But because of the company's growth, that will change. On Sept. 23, the company began to add labels to its packaged ice cream.

"It's just a matter of time when people will see them show up on [freezer] shelves," Lowe said.

Now, Mitchell's has decided to make its nutritional information available too, online and in stores. Mike Mitchell said he and his brother Pete, who expect to open their eighth store near University Circle this fall and another shop and production facility in Ohio City in the spring, plan to purchase the software that will allow them to calculate nutritional breakdowns for their ice cream.

"I used to tell people if they asked me about it, that it's probably the same as Ben & Jerry's," Mike Mitchell said. "But since our first ingredient is milk and theirs is cream, our ice cream probably has less fat.

"It makes sense to have accurate information, and to make it available for people who are interested," he says.

As nutritional labeling becomes more and more prevalent, it's nice to know that we can count on some local companies to share what they know about what they're serving up.

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